Sniper Rifle
The Sniper Rifle is a weapon appearing in the Unreal series. __TOC__ Overview The Sniper Rifle is a hitscan weapon provided with a scope, intended for long-range offense. In every game it appears, it has those two functions: a slow-ROF bullet as the primary fire, and a configurable zoom as an alternate fire. Depending on the game, it may have other features such as smoke after firing in zoom mode, or a rapid-fire burst of bullets. The Lightning Gun is a successor of sorts. Unreal and Unreal Mission Pack: Return to Na Pali The Rifle is human-made (mind the two blades on the front, giving it the appearance of a cattle prod) and used as a main weapon by the survivors from the crashed ships. Skaarj Snipers make use of the weapon, guarding areas from sniper posts and other high buildings. Many players emphasize that on the level Bluff Eversmoking, the Rifle and the Flak Cannon would be your top weapons of choice because of the ranged enemies you might find. Unreal Tournament ;Primary Fire :Fires a high powered bullet. Can kill instantly when applied to the cranium of opposing forces. ;Secondary Fire :Zooms the rifle in, up to eight times normal vision. Allows for extreme precision from hundreds of yards away. Disadvantage: Unaware of close opponent(s) in zoom. With an ammo capacity of 50, the Sniper Rifle can deliver the deadliest shots at any range. Its lethal accuracy and powerful bullet are offset by a slow rate of fire; the Sniper Rifle is far from the ideal weapon to use when engaging enemies from anything but a significant distance. The primary fire is simply firing the rifle, either by clicking each time or by holding down the trigger, while the secondary fire toggles the zoom mode up to 8.3x. The zoom mode cannot be fine tuned once it is set: the player will have to exit the zoom mode and enter it again to fire while zoomed in at a different setting. When a proper headshot is landed, the announcer will exclaim "Head shot!" while text appears on the screen. Unreal II: The Awakening ;Primary Fire :Fires a single shot. ;Secondary Fire :Toggles the scope on and off. The zoom, unlike the ones in other Unreal series games, is not controlled by the time you hold the trigger, but is controlled by the weapon scroll buttons. To zoom in, use the mouse wheel up, to zoom out, use the mouse wheel down. When out of ammo in clip and still using zoom, the view will automatically come out of zoom mode, play the reload animation and zoom in again (that's why it takes longer to reload while using secondary fire). The Widowmaker Sniper Rifle of Unreal II is the best weapon for long range in the game. It is also capable of headshotting for extra damage. When the player is in the zoom mode, it is very difficult to see enemies coming from behind or the sides as they are blacked out. It is the most similar weapon to other Unreal series weapons from the Unreal II arsenal. The only changes are the clip usage and the zoom technology. Unreal Tournament 2004 ;Primary Fire :Fires a high velocity bullet. ;Secondary Fire :Activates a scope allowing you to zoom in on your opponents. ;Notes * A puff of smoke appears when firing this weapon, partially obscuring the player's vision. * The Lightning Gun is still available; it's the mappers choice to include one or both of the weapons (one of the official maps, CTF-January, does include both weapons). Players can use the Lightning Guns or Sniper Rifles mutators to force one weapon or the other. As a "returning weapon" due to its absence in the game's predecessor UT2003, the sniper comes back with more rather annoying features. The prominent "change" is the addition of rifle smoke which temporarily covers the scope lens, thus obstructing the player's view in zoom mode. Also, the rifle has lost the extent of accuracy, when compared to UT99 or Unreal II, thus making it less reliable than its electronic and UT2003 replacement counterpart, the Lightning Gun. The Sniper Rifle is one weapon that can fetch you the "Head Hunter" award for making 15 headshots in a match. Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict ;Primary Fire :A burst of three deadly shots. It seems to be similar to the originally planned Unreal rifle's alternative fire. Headshots might or might not be enabled when using this mode. ;Secondary Fire :Enables the sniper's scope and changes the type of fire. When zoomed, the rifle fires a more powerful round which is an instant kill on a headshot. Unreal Tournament 3 ;Primary Fire :Fire a high velocity sniper round. Hitting players causes 70 points of damage, a hit to a player's head, even when in open vehicles (Manta, Viper, Hellbender/Leviathan turrets, Hoverboard), causes 140 points. Power nodes/cores and most vehicles receive only 28 points of damage, but lightly-armored vehicles, such as the Manta, the Scorpion and the Viper receive 42 points. When fired, the bullet leaves a tracer, so enemies could see the sniper's hiding spot. ;Secondary Fire :User-controlled zoom mode. Press to start zooming in, release to freeze zoom level, press again to disable zoom. Unreal Tournament 4 ; Primary fire : Low rate of fire instant hit shot. Deals additional damage to the head. ; Alternate fire : Variable zoom - tap to engage/disengage, hold to zoom in further. Gallery Rifle.png|First-person view (Unreal) Sniper Rifle.png|First-person view (Unreal Tournament) Sniper_rifle.jpg|(Unreal II: The Awakening) !UT3-ConceptArt-SniperRifle-2.jpg|UT3 Concept Art !UT3-GameRender-SniperRifle.jpg|UT3 Promotional Render !ConceptArt-U2-SniperRifle.jpg|Widowmaker Sniper Rifle concept art Unreal Tournament Sniper Rifle guide|UT4 Sniper Rifle guide Trivia * In the original readme file for Unreal, the secondary fire lists a 3 round burst. This functionality is not present in the game, instead giving the zoom in scope. It was later corrected in the Prima site. ** The 3 round burst would arrive in Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict. ** When the zoom was active, a scope would pop out from the bottom of the rifle and would arrange itself on top of the rifle, but this animation was never originally used in Unreal. * In Unreal Tournament, the death text remains the same no matter where the shot is placed to kill the enemy. ** Also, the Sniper Rifle strongly resembles a modified M16A2 rifle. The differences between it an the M16A2 all are in keeping with conversion of an assault rifle to a sniper rifle: semi-automatic fire only, a significantly lengthened barrel, and a long-range scope mounted atop the carrying handle. 2341, the year in which Unreal Tournament is set, is 377 years after the M16 was first produced by the United States of America in 1964, and some 355 years after the adoption of the M16A2 in the mid-to-late 1980s. ** Despite only having what appears to be a 20 round magazine, the Sniper Rifle can somehow carry 50 rounds. * The Instagib Rifle in Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict is a superpowered version of the Sniper Rifle. Preview notes }} External links and references See also * Lightning Gun, the replacement for the Sniper Rifle in Unreal Tournament 2003 and Unreal Championship